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Supergraph, Melbourne’s premier graphic design exhibition and platform for emerging artists, is back for its second hot year. Director Mikala Tai tells us why it’s pretty much mandatory to attend.

1. You can buy some art without taking out a mortgage or selling your first born
This was one of Tai’s primary motivations for kickstarting Supergraph. “I’d been working at design and art exhibitions all over the world for about two or three years but I was working with lots of beautiful things that I couldn’t afford” she explains. “The art work was amazing, but there was nothing like reproductive prints that we could actually buy. So when we were setting this up we were all about, ‘how can you get something that you love to take home with you that’s not going to break the bank’?” Thankfully, Supergraph gives us the answer.

2. You can take the guesswork out of your personal design style
Design fortune telling – it’s a thing! “It’s new this year,” Tai explains. “You can get your design future told by our trend tarot cards. You go into a little cardboard teepee and the cards will predict your font, shape, pattern and colour for the next 12 months. If you need to know what colour you should be wearing, we’ll tell you.” Good – we’re happy to outsource that conundrum.

3. Art makes a home
Bare walls are for serial killers: you need to claim your space. “My parents always collected artworks – not expensive artworks though,” says Tai. “We didn’t have lots of fancy things, we just had things my parents really loved. We moved around a lot when I was little - but if the paintings came, it instantly felt like home. The idea that you can have works that travel with you and share your life is really important.”